Fabulous and Fifty...............

After I wrote my post this morning I realised I hit the fabulous fifty mark. Congrats to me!!!! I didn't think I would ever make it this far. I am not sure how many others out there(apart from my hubby)have actually read along with me on my little journey but that doesn't matter as long as I am enjoying the experience and I am. I don't find the writing part quite that easy to do because I think way too much about what and how I am going to write. I don't see myself as a natural born writer and I think that has a lot to do with the ease or in my case unease of writing but as I said before I am quite liking the experience.

Well on I will go and see where the next fifty will lead me.

Sidetracked by slipperydips...........

Last week life just didn't feel normal. Our weekly routine seemed to be hijacked by stuff beyond our control. It wasn't bad stuff it was just different stuff. I had a list of things I wanted to get done and not a lot of it got achieved. My husband got home, eventually, the kids had things on at school that we had to get there early for, that wasn't easy I can tell you. I can't remember what else happened but it was just a different kind of week. Hopefully this week we might go back to a bit of normality.

We went off to a party yesterday at the local water slides. The kids had never been on one. At the beginning they were their usual scardycat selves but by the end they just couldn't get enough. There is also a little baby pool with little slides and these very cute watery mushrooms.They remind me of something that would come from Alice in Wonderland.

My mum and mother-in-law are arriving this week for a pre-Xmas holiday. I have many a thing to do to get their rooms ready and general cleaning but I just don't know where to start nor have the motivation. I think I will have my cup of tea read all the blogs I haven't had a chance to read over the weekend and get on with it. All I have to say is I will try not to get sidetracked.

Buy/make homemade.....................

I took the pledge for this today. If you want to you can go over to Buy Handmade and do the same. In my case it will be me making handmade to give to my nephews and nieces. I have been tossing up whether to do that or not, whether the sister-in-laws are sick of the Aunty's homemade wares but what the heck I am just going to do it anyway. On the other side of the handmade present thing I have been busy making gifts for others to give. So I suppose I am in the loop of the handmade society. Yay!!!!!
Better get off and get going. Time is a tickin'.

Cute little things.......................

Somebody here makes these little dolls. I found them in at the local market. They are made from wool and are very cute. I sometimes use them to finish off a bag but usually they just hang around our house.

Raining and reading............

It has been raining here for the last two days and that doesn't make me particularly inspired to do anything much other than read. The reading matter could be anything books( this is on the go at the moment), magazines, old good weekend's that people have brought over or other bloggers. So today I'm going to just tell you about a few I have discovered. They are not necessarily new but they are new to me.

Dudley Redhead -I do like ready stuff from my home country.

Bricolagelife - don't know what to say just like it.

fine little day -fab photos.

the glass doorknob - literally I have just started reading this one.

Yarnstorn - I have just ordered her book. An early Christmas present to myself.

That should keep you busy for a while. Better go off now and clean up the house. Husband is due back today. He's not arriving till this afternoon but with the rain continuing it could take me all day. There seems to be reading material wherever I look. Aarrgh!!!!

Finally.....................

Finally we have pictures!!!! It has taken me soooooo long to get here. Between blogger just not wanting to co-operate this morning and then this evening somewhere along the line me losing connection with the mother station every few minutes. But now it is done. Hooray!!!! I'm not sure if there is a greater being out there not wanting me to pursue a career related to the computer because I often find it very frustrating and could quite easily find something better to do with my time. Like sew or watch what my children are doing! But I persist for some unknown reason. Somebody please tell me why!!!!
Anyway some satchel bags for kids for Christmas. Some are going to Canada and some to Australia. It is exciting when you know your stuff is heading out into the big wide world.

Basic black.
Girly pink.

A bag I made for a birthday gift. It is for a friend I have made here in Noumea. She has become the families French tutor as well. The bag turned out tres cute and I like the shape and the drawstring thing very much. I think I am going to make one for myself from some retro fabrics I got sent over from Mikes.

I have two more days until the hubby gets home and I need to pack away the sewing stuff. Let's see what I can get done and let's hope this b*$#@&y computer starts to behave itself.
Have a good week everybody.
P.S thanks Brenda for being my model.

Problems...............

Having a bit of a frustrating time with blogger this morning. I am trying to put up some pictures of what I have been doing this week but can't. It keeps giving me a code to send to the support team but I can't find the support team. I am not the best at dealing with things that go a bit haywire with the computer so I think I will go and have a coffee, tend to my daughter that had a fall at the park and has hurt her back and come back in an hour. If it is still not working you all might just have to wait till tomorrow. The problems with the internet may just be a roll on effect from all the other things that are happening in this country. There is a picket line at Presto pizzas( for some this is very disastrous),ground staff at the airports are on strike so not all planes are coming in here. I have a friend whose husband has been away for nearly 3 weeks and he was due home today but his flight has been canceled. She is one pissed off lady. My hubby's not due home till Tuesday, let's hope everything is back to normal by then. But lets hope even more that the internet is still not having it's tantrum and I can get news to and from the outside world.

Now what is in the cupboard (that's not good for me) that I can have with my coffee!!!

Messiness.....................

Sewing machines still on the table. More fabric and bits being dragged out everyday. Every evening coming up with new ideas to be put into progress. Keeping a little space free at the end so the kids at least can eat their breakfast at the table. They are not so upset that the table is full of crap it means they get to eat their dinner in front of the television. All this makes for a much more relaxed lifestyle when their dad is away not that our lifestyle needs slowing down. Any slower and we would be called the sloth family. I will do some show and tell at the end of the week and show what I have been doing with all my free time.

A theme..................

Images with a theme that I cross paths with everyday. Usually I am picking most of it up off the floor and putting it away!

Girls after a lovely bath at the kitchen sink.

Girls that usually hang out anywhere and everywhere.

Most treasured books. Have been read many, many a time.

These girls actually just sit looking pretty(most of the time).

Bedroom walls.
Who do you think all this stuff belongs to? girl or boy?

No Husband and Halloween.................

Well everybody I am husbandless for the next 8 days. What am I going to do with myself in that time? To name but a few things. I am going to keep the sewing machine set up on the kitchen table for the whole time( unfortunately I don't have a designated sewing area here),have a reasonably tidy house(I always find it easier to keep the house under control when he isn't here) and not have to worry too much about what I cook. In that area I don't have a complaining husband but I do feel I need to put a bit of variety on the dining table but when it is just the kids and myself we slack off a bit. They don't mind to eat a lot of pasta and I don't mind making myself a big pot of soup and having that a few nights in a row.

I do have a few tasks I would like to complete this week though. The kids are celebrating Halloween for the first time this year. They are doing stuff about it at school and there is a few people here who get together on the night for some 'trick or treating'. They are pretty excited about that. I am on the job with costumes. That is the easy part in this household but if anybody can tell me if there is anything special made and eaten at Halloween that would be good. If we are going start this tradition we may as well do it properly. I am waiting for this zine to turn up in my post box. Maybe it might have some ideas in it that can help.

Everybody out there have a good week I know I will.

Treats..................

Yesterday I said I was going to post about something delicious. Well something that my husband and I think very delicious anyway. Back in Australia our most favourite chocolate is Cadburys Turkish delight and there is nowhere here that you can get it. I would probably think the French may not even know what it is. Anyway when Simon goes away for work he generally has to pass through an Australian airport and he picks up some to be devoured when the kids go to bed. There is noway these precious bars are going to be wasted on the children. But I have found a solution for our need to eat chocolate coated turkish delight. Do it myself. My sister-in-law left us with some of the icing dusted, rose scented stuff. It was truly melt in the mouth 'a la natural' but I couldn't help myself. I went out and bought a bar of fairly high grade cooking chocolate and what happened with it is pictured belong. All I can say is that it didn't last very long in this household once it was discovered.

I know I can put this little experiment into the 'I will do that again' basket.
Ohhhhhh it was soooooooo nice!!!!!
Am going away for a couple of days we have more friends visiting. See you soon.

Pirates and rabbits...........

On Saturday Simon took the kids out for some daddy/offspring bonding. I got to do some bonding with my sewing machine. Much needed I can tell you. I was on a mission to make a gift for a 3 year old and his party was on the following day. The theme was,you guessed it. Pirates. So of course what did he get, a pirate doll. This was my first attempt at making a pirate. Not to bad. The kids liked him so I thought that counted for something. There is somethings I would probably change a little on the next one but that always happens when it's a first time. The rabbit was already finished and it was going to the birthday boys little sister. The little sister hasn't been born yet but it's nice to give little gifts early.

The kids also had some requests while the sewing machine was out> I don't know what anybody else's children are like but they always have requests when I am making cute stuff. They wanted little rabbits this time. Below you see Rosie Raspberry on Lucy the unicorn.


And these two are Blueberry and Grape. The two pictures of the bunnies were taken by Juliette. Not too bad are they?

I am going to post tomorrow about something that is really delicious. Well Simon and I love it anyway.

Post haircut blues update..........

Well ,we are all ok here today. Phew!!!!!!!
Django's happy to go to school knowing nobody really gives a damn about his haircut. Me, I feel better for knowing I have a boy who is not mentally scarred for the rest of his life because of one haircut. I have a memory of my younger brother often complaining to my mum and I about being scarred by a pair of jeans my mum 'made' him wear as a little boy. He never let her forget that running around the playground in a pair of 'Grasshopper' jeans with Cowboys and Indians on them may have potentially ruined his life! He life was a bit haywire way down the track but it wasn't because of those particular jeans.

Post haircut blues.............

This morning I was standing in the shower thinking I should write something in here today. I have some time, visitors have left us,the only thing I have to do this morning is make a chocolate cake for the kids to have at lunchtime but I couldn't for the life of me think of anything to write about. Then a situation arose that was worth expressing. In our house this morning we had post haircut blues . My son Django got a much needed haircut and it went from this.......


to this........Oh no look at the expression on his face.I feel so terrible. He didn't want to go to school because he thought everybody would laugh at him. I had to keep reassuring him it was ok and his hair will grow again. When?? Soon!! When he finally walked into his class the kids did look at him but his teacher loved it and keep saying 'j'aime beaucoup comme ca'. If only that was going to make him feel better. Yesterday he wanted it cut in this style but it's hard to explain that to little boy who is feeling very selfconscious. How do you tell a 6year old that it going to be alright and that it isn't the end of the world!! Hopefully when he comes home for lunch he will have cheered up and I can lift some of that guilty weight off my shoulders. I should have known better when he said he wanted it short and spikey. Mothers and guilt. Why are the two so interconnected?

Anyway his sister was trying to cheer him up as we left the house and isn't that one of their purposes in life?

Sweet...............

Well I'm back! It seems like I have been gone so long. I think it was only about 4 or 5 days though. We have been away again this time on a camping weekend. I am going to write all about it on my new blog as that's what I have set it up for. This post is going to be short and very sweet. I am going to show you what comes in these most gorgeous boxes. We had one the other night after dinner. Anybody who has travelled through France will know what they are used for . Everyplace you get them usually has a different picture on the front but always the same boxes. I just love them and what is inside. This time we had our very favourite.

Voila!! Tarte de citron et meringue. Oh and it was so, so very tasty. The little bit that was left over was even better the next day for morning tea.